"China is censoring Google News to force Internet users to use the
Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical
news reports," Reporters Without Borders said. "By agreeing to launch
a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government,
Google has let itself be used by Beijing."

"The current block on Google News is a strange one, since only a few of
the Google IP addresses have been blocked. The discussion on what is
going on is still in full swing, the association RWB makes with the
Chinese google site seems one of the less likely ones." (Fons Tuinstra)

[I also did a quick check myself, the ban is sometimes there, but the small implementation seems an accurate description]